Agrawal, A., Azabi, Y. O. & Rahman, B. M. (2013). Stacking the Equiangular Spiral.

IEEE Photonics
Technology Letters(99), doi: 10.1109/LPT.2012.2236309
<http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/LPT.2012.2236309>

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Original citation: Agrawal, A., Azabi, Y. O. & Rahman, B. M. (2013). Stacking the Equiangular Spiral.
IEEE Photonics Technology Letters(99), doi: 10.1109/LPT.2012.2236309
<http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/LPT.2012.2236309>
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Stacking the Equiangular Spiral

Arti Agrawal, Y. O. Azabi and B. M. A. Rahman

Abstract We present an algorithm that adapts the mature

Stack and Draw (SaD) methodology for fabricating the exotic
Equiangular Spiral Photonic Crystal Fiber. (ES-PCF) The
principle of Steiner chains and circle packing is exploited to
obtain a non-hexagonal design using a stacking procedure based
on Hexagonal Close Packing. The optical properties of the
proposed structure are promising for SuperContinuum
Generation. This approach could make accessible not only the
equiangular spiral but also other quasi-crystal PCF through SaD.
Index TermsEquiangular Spiral, Photonic Crystal Fiber,
Stack and Draw.

I. INTRODUCTION

UASI Crystal Photonic Crystal Fiber (QC-PCF) designs

have been proposed for many different applications and
to obtain desired modal properties [1]-[5]. Such properties
could include flat dispersion [1], high non-linearity [2], large
birefringence [3], increased optical through put [4], mode
discrimination for fiber lasers [5] and others that may not be
realizable with conventional periodic structures. Thus there is
some merit in exploring non-hexagonal templates amongst
PCF. A common challenge with many of these designs is that
of fabrication.
Methods like Stack and Draw (SaD) [6] that are well
understood and used widely may be difficult to apply for nonhexagonal designs. While techniques such as drilling [7] and
extrusion [8] offer alternative approaches, the concerns with
utilizing these are the design complexity that can be handled,
potential cost and thus availability to a large number of users.
Recently some optical properties of the unconventional
Equiangular Spiral PCF (ES-PCF) design were presented and
it was shown that this design offers excellent control over the
modal properties [9, 10]. It would be possible to obtain small
modal area (leading to enhanced non-linearity) with
simultaneously small, flat dispersion in the ES-PCF, making it
suitable for non-linear applications such as SuperContinuum
Generation (SCG) [11]. Further, it was shown that the bending
loss in ES-PCF could be much lower than conventional
Hexagonal PCF (H-PCF) for small d/pitch values [10].
However, like some other non-hexagonal, QC fiber designs,
the ES-PCF has not yet been fabricated.
In this article, we present an algorithm for the fabrication of

Manuscript received March 13, 2012.

The authors are with the School of Engineering and Mathematical
Sciences, City University London, Northampton Square, London, EC1V
0HB, UK (phone: +44(0)2070408366; e-mail: arti.agrawal.1@ city.ac.uk).

the ES-PCF structure by adapting the well established SaD

technology. Furthermore, we present simulation results for the
ES-PCF structure obtained by means of the proposed
algorithm.
II. FABRICATION ALGORITHM
The SaD method consists of stacking capillaries/rods in a
repeating hexagonal arrangement to obtain a perform that is
drawn to fiber with application of heat and pressure. The
underlying mathematical basis of SaD is the Hexagonal Close
Packing (HCP) of circles in a plane (considering the transverse
cross section of the PCF), which also results in the densest
lattice packing in two dimensions [12]. A key requirement of
the SaD procedure is that all the capillaries/rods need support,
obtained through resting against other capillaries/rods.
Furthermore, tubes/rods can only be placed in the depressions
formed between existing tubes/rods, forcing the angle between
these features to a fixed value of 60o. Thus, irregular and nonhexagonal arrangements may seem very difficult to achieve
with SaD. We show, however, how quasi-crystal designs such
as the ES-PCF can be obtained through SaD.

Fig. 1. The schematic of an equiangular spiral curve.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic of an Equiangular Spiral (ES)

curve. This curve is governed by Eq. 1

rspiral ro e cot

(1)

where rspiral is the distance of any point on the curve from the
origin, ro is the spiral radius, is the angle between the tangent
and the radial line and is the angle with the x-axis. The radii
drawn at equal intervals of are in a geometric progression.
In the ES-PCF, the air holes are arranged in arms, where
each arm is an ES. The air holes in each arm are located at
positions determined by Eq. 1 for fixed values of ro and . In
every arm each air hole is separated by an angular increment
with respect to the previous/successive air hole in the same
arm.
An elegant way to adapt the SaD method for the ES-PCF is
by use of the concept of Steiner chains [13]- given two
concentric circles it is possible to fit into the annular region
between them circles of equal radii that just touch each other.

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By building an appropriate Steiner chain of capillaries around
the core, the objective is to ensure that the capillaries are
located at the coordinates determined by Eq. 1, and form an
accurate representation of equiangular spirals. Each capillary
ought to subtend an angle 2 at the centre of the structure.
Also, the angular increment between successive capillaries (air
holes) in the same arm should be . This angle, , is
determined by the number of arms, n.

360o 2n

loss we show how to stack large capillaries in the outer 3rd ring
[14].

(2)

Therefore, the capillaries (air holes) no longer fall on

locations determined by a hexagonal template but according to
the ES design. The stacking procedure to achieve the design is
described below in detail.
The first step is placing a rod (core) surrounded by a tube
(casing) which encloses the 1st and 2nd rings of air holes of all
arms [see Fig. 2(a)]. In the annular region the capillaries have
to be stacked to form the 1st two rings of the cladding. The
distance between the centers of the 1s
t
and 2nd air holes in the same arm is calculated, the result of
dividing it by 2 gives the outer radius of the tubes (air hole),
r_holeout. The radius of the rod (core) can then be defined as:
(3)
rcore ro r _ holeout

Fig. 3. Steiner chain of circles filling the gap between 2 concentric circles.

The stacking of the 3rd ring air holes repeats the use of Steiner
chain concept shown in Fig. 3 (where R is radius of the outer
circle, rinner is the radius of the inner circle, and is the radius
of the enclosed circles in the annular region) which indicates
that:
R
1 sin( )

x
(4)
rinner 1 sin( )
using

sin( ) rinner

(5)

and substituting Eq.5. in Eq.4 results in the formula which

defines the outer radius of the 3rd ring capillaries as:
(6)
rinner x 1 2

core

casing

(a)

(b)

(c)

Fig. 4. The cross section of all stacked tubes and rods for exotic equiangular
spiral PCF structure of 7 arms.
(d)

(e)

Fig. 2. Placement of 1st and 2nd ring capillaries in the ES-PCF by stacking;
(a) rod (core) and tube (casing), (b) placing 1st air hole of 1st arm, (c) placing
2nd air hole of 1st arm, (d) placing 1st air hole of 2nd arm, (e) 1st and 2nd air
holes of all arms are stacked.

The second step is placing a tube (air hole) such that it

touches the central rod [see Fig. 2(b)] and a 2nd tube (air hole)
such that it touches the casing and the 1st tube (air hole) [see
Fig 2(c)]. This procedure is to be followed for all arms to stack
tubes that form the first two rings as shown in Figures 2(d)-(e).
The capillaries that touch the central rod (core) form the
first ring of the air-holes while the capillaries that touch the
casing (and not the core) form the second ring of air holes. In
the resulting structure no capillary is left free standing.
Furthermore, this stacking ensures each tube (air hole) is
placed as per Eq. 1 and the angular increment between air
holes 1 and 2 of the same arm is exactly . The size and
location of the air holes in the first two rings is important in
the modal properties such as dispersion. However, the location
of the air holes in the third ring (in terms of angle with respect
to the origin) does not have much effect on dispersion and
effective area (Aeff) for the ES-PCF. Therefore, their placement
can be relatively flexible. Furthermore, to lower the leakage

Fig. 4 shows the ES-PCF structure that would be obtained

by implementing this algorithm. It should be noted that the
algorithm can be generalized for any number of arms and the
core and air hole sizes can be varied to suit the needs of the
optical design.
There is a degree of challenge associated with the
complexity in stacking and producing rods/capillaries of
required dimensions in realizing the ES-PCF design, however,
with some effort it can be met, for example by using sand
technology where vertical stacking is possible [15]. Although
the fabrication algorithm addresses the ES design specifically,
the concept indicates that quasi-crystal designs can be
produced through stacking.
III. RESULTS
In this section we show some simulation results for optical
properties of the ES-PCF structure obtained by the proposed
algorithm using the full vectorial FEM method [16]. About
15000 second order elements arranged in an irregular mesh
have been used to represent the structure. The properties of the
modal field of the ES-PCF such as Aeff, non-linearity ()
variation with core diameter and dispersion behaviour as a

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3.0

8000

Field Plot of the

Fundamental Mode

6000
5000
1.5

4000

Aeff
Gamma

3000
2000
1000

0.0
0.6

0.8

1.0

1.05

1.06

1.07

-800

0.75

0.90

1.05

1.20

1.35

1.50

1.65

1.80

Fig. 6. Dispersion variation with wavelength for Equiangular Spiral PCF.

REFERENCES
[1]
[2]

0
0.4

-400

-1200
0.60

0.5

0.2

0
-20

Wavelength (m)

2.0

1.0

20

7000

Gamma (W-1km-1)

2.5

Aeff (m2)

Dispersion (ps/nm/km)

function of wavelength are presented. We use the definition

given in [17] to calculate Aeff. Dispersion and nonlinearity are
calculated as per the formulae in [1] and [18], respectively.
The simulations are for PCF in SF57 glass and in this
instance pertain to a structure optimized for SCG pumped at
1064nm. The fiber parameters are: ro=0.5m, radius of air
holes in the 1st and 2nd rings is 0.1375m, radius of 3rd ring air
holes is 0.5528m, =25.7o, number of arms=7.

1.2

1.4

1.6

[3]

Core diameter (m)

Fig. 5. Variation of and Aeff with core diameter for the ES-PCF.

Fig. 5 shows the variation in the Aeff as a function of the core

diameter as well as the corresponding values, where the air
filling fraction is kept constant (r/ro=0.275). The smallest
possible value of the effective area at the operating wavelength
of 1064nm is ~0.352m2. The associated value is 6878 W1
km-1, which is one of the largest yet proposed in SF57 PCF in
comparison with Aeff= 0.84m2 and ~3000 W-1km-1, with the
same core diameter published in [18]. The dispersion
associated with the fiber (ro=0.5m) is shown in Fig. 6. The
absolute value of dispersion at the pump wavelength of interest
is D~6.7ps/km/nm with slope ~1.16ps/km/nm2, compared to
D>~ 50ps/km/nm with a steep slope (Fig.3, Ref. 18). Hence,
the ES-PCF offers both a high degree of modal confinement
(large ) and small, flat dispersion near the pump wavelength
even though the index contrast between the glass material and
air is quite large. These properties make the proposed structure
extremely suitable for SCG.
IV. CONCLUSION
We have presented an algorithm for fabrication of a non
traditional PCF design, the ES-PCF which offers excellent
performance over several characteristics, especially effective
modal area and dispersion, both key for broadband SCG. The
ES-PCF can be useful for SCG for the mid and far IR
wavelength regimes that are important in astrophotonics,
sensing and spectroscopy. New materials such as
chalcogenides could be used more effectively with good
control of the modal field, even when the index contrast is
significant. Both solid core and hollow core ES-PCF can be
realized with the algorithm presented. Whereas previously,
stacking did not seem to be a feasible procedure, we have
shown that it can be adapted even for non-hexagonal designs.
Hence it can open the door to realising quasi crystal designs.

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